Editing Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode2 (section)

===8===

“Huff, puff.”

The girl focused on keeping a set rhythm when jogging. She moved from the upper levels of the diamond-shaped city to the lower levels. She didn’t worry about her speed. She took each step as if it would help expel the negative energy from the core of her body.

Zombie Girl Dorothea Rockpool had finished the Bealtaine practice exam.

Her self-assessment was even better than she had expected. It was far from perfect, but she had aced the ATU number memorization part, putting her above even Melehe, who always scored Rank A. It may have helped that she was a bookish girl through and through.

Finding something she was good at gave her the courage she needed to keep going. It helped her believe that all her efforts hadn’t been in vain.

“Phew.”

It was still dark out. She stopped her running feet in the predawn city and pushed her slipping glasses back into place. She looked up on a whim.

There was a massive lake in the center of the city. She saw a large circular building bordering the Lakeside area. That was the Arena. Unlike the standard prep school training grounds, this was a witch sporting facility that anyone was free to use.

Before, she had frequently visited there with Formula Broom – Lyceum.

Toward the end, she had begun relying on something else entirely.

“––––”

She shook her head to drive out the unpleasant memory. She didn’t need any quick tricks or cheats to skip over the usual process. Even if it wasn’t visible yet, she wanted to gradually improve herself the right way.

This time, she would take her own step forward.

“O-okay.”

The zombie girl slapped her cheeks and turned away from the Arena. She had reached the end of her jogging route. Now she had to jog back the way she had come. She didn’t need to focus on a distant goal right away. She set a smaller goal for herself: the next large elevator pillar painted red so flying witches wouldn’t run into it.

All while she believed these small things would eventually add up to passing the exam.

“Ohh?”

Someone grinned while watching her from behind.

And they weren’t alone. Three girls were watching Dorothea Rockpool in amusement from a corner of the Arena’s gate.

“So Dorothea’s working hard to get back into studying for the exam. What a waste of time. Peh heh heh.”

“And after she cried, begged, and hopped so desperately to buy those recipes from us. Can you believe this, Lampans?”

“Who do you think you’re kidding? We all know you’re planning to drag her back in. Aren’t you, Arbamini, Holibre?”

Red, blue, green.

The girls all wore puffy round miniskirts, white short-sleeve blouses, suspenders, and colored leggings – each girl wearing her own color. They all wore an identical sash diagonally down from one shoulder. The yellow and black stripes were the stereotypical warning colors of venomous creatures.

A waitress uniform that emphasized the chest may have been the closest comparison.

But their sweet macaron-like miniskirts were polka dotted instead of a plain color. That looked fancy at first, but it was actually another threatening pattern used by venomous animals.

They were the wicked aces who ruled over the other 300 girls at the infamous Sassafras Cfa Prep School.

They embodied a distorted view of preparing for the entrance exam where they specialized in sabotaging their rivals rather than increasing their own scores.

Some ''muffled groaning'' came from nearby.

All three of them had parchment talismans pasted all over their broom handles.

The talismans said “do not disturb” on the front. Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans were holding a strategy meeting. They didn’t need any unwanted advice from their Formula Brooms.

“Of course we are, Lampans. Carraway Cs has strict defenses, so it’s hard to get at them. We went to all the trouble of giving ourselves a pawn there, so we need Dorothea to cause some more trouble in their walls.”

“Does the naïve fool really think she can just back out after choosing for herself to get involved? Know what I mean, Arbamini, Lampans? We’re the ones that decide when she isn’t useful anymore. And that’s when we throw her out.”

“Then let’s get it over with, Holibre. That ''weight loss talisman'' is powerful, so no matter how stoic she pretends to be, she can’t escape its allure. She’ll crumble the instant we give her more.”

The talisman’s effects couldn’t be stacked, so there was no point in having multiple. And the body would build up a resistance to its effects, so the one recipe wouldn’t be enough for the addicts and they would seek out an even more powerful recipe and be willing to pay a lot for it. “New and improved” was not just used to advertise food. It was a useful phrase for these shadier products as well.

But these three didn’t actually do all that much. They simply made some minor adjustments to the default recipe and sold the addicts that. It only had to get around the body’s resistance. And it was none of their concern what happened to the addicts’ health as more and more new stimuli and reactions were introduced to their bodies.

The addicts knew it was unhealthy going in, so they didn’t question it when their health deteriorated.

“I mean, why should we care what Dorothea wants? If we surround her, we don’t even need all our arms to pin down all her limbs. How about we apply the parchment talisman to her by force? Using a sturdy glue, of course.”

“Sounds great. How about we also give her a chastity belt she can’t remove herself. That way we know the talisman’s staying in place until it takes effect.”

“Hee hee. But then she couldn’t get it off even if it caused an overreaction. You two are so mean. Don’t blame me if that dumb witch foams at the mouth and dies.”

It was unclear what she was so embarrassed about, but heading out alone at around dawn when there weren’t many people out yet was like asking to be attacked. As long as they were on the lookout for the delivery familiars who always followed the same course, there was plenty of room to kill someone.

“Okay, let’s go get this job over with.”

“Right? Let’s do it, let’s do it. It’s not like we have to pass the exam this year or anything.”

“Yes, getting into Maleficium is only the beginning. Hee hee. Our school life after passing will go much smoother if we intentionally fail a couple of times to spend a year or two earning some money.”

Arbamini had her red hair in a braid that resembled a fried shrimp, Holibre wore glasses and had her blue hair in twintails, and Lampans had her green hair in a ponytail. The poisonous macaron trio in waitress outfits had their target in sight.

They walked out from the Arena’s gate as one.

Or they would have…

“Don’t even think about it.”

The witch wore a black jacket, a short skirt, and a large hat. She looked like a cross between a sky pirate and a soldier. Her chocolate parfait look was adorned with medals and rank insignia on her chest.

With her shoulder-length silver hair and brown skin, Melehe stood in those girls’ path.

So she could push back their violent malice on her own.

“Wow, would you look at that. It’s the ace of Carraway Cs. She’s supposed to be their strongest witch, right?”

“Right. So won’t we get a reward if we beat her up and drag her back to our school? They pay for girls who look like they could get into Maleficium.”

“She’d make a fuss if we just abducted her. You brought your handheld silver halide, right? Then let’s ensure her silence by taking some compromising photos first. Hee hee.”

They laughed.

And laughed.

“Hey, did either of you bring the bear trap? Where’s that thick chain?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll do you a favor and put a bag over your head first. ''It wouldn’t be much of a threat if we’d already ruined you''. Being seen stuck on the ground and unable to fly is enough for a witch to kill herself, after all.”

“Let’s do it with her submerged up to her shoulders in that filthy river in the squatters district. She looks like the proud type, so if we leave her there a while, she’ll have the tears and snot running down her face . One photo of that and we’ll have the perfect bargaining chip.”

It took the full use of all Melehe’s facial muscles to avoid reacting to the sensation she felt pushing in like dark ripples. If someone didn’t do what these girls wanted, they would teach that person a lesson. Melehe now understood just how thin of ice that timid girl had been walking on.

“You were the ones spreading around those ''guaranteed weight loss talismans'', weren’t you?”

Melehe wanted to pass the entrance exam to meet her mother’s approval and to take an important step toward being a powerful leader for the Private Striga coven she so loved. If her rivals were cheating, it would call into question her own accomplishment.

Melehe was not enough of a philanthropist to protect the weak.

She knew ensuring a proper study environment was part of the battle toward passing the exam. Maleficium failed more than 99.9999% of those who took the exam, so there was no chance of a convenient dream where everyone passed.

If you weren’t strong enough, you would be failed without a second thought. She could not even give Viocia special treatment just because the girl wanted to help her grandmother. Dorothea had to have a serious motivation too since she had worked to get back on her feet after running into trouble. And of course, that alone wasn’t enough to pass.

But Melehe had seen Dorothea’s strength during the Bealtaine. Melehe always kept a rank of A in the official practice exams, but Dorothea had surpassed her on the ATU number memorization.

Melehe could not deny the girl’s ability.

She could tell the girl had worked herself to the bone until she produced real results.

Everyone was gritting their teeth and working hard in this “war”, but there were others who didn’t do any work, didn’t bother trying to earn points, and focused only on sabotaging others to take the easy way out.

The exam was meant to be a battle against oneself. It was wrong to have people’s futures taken from them because they were sabotaged and never had a chance to prove their strength. And to make matters worse, these girls had mentioned a monetary reward as an added bonus.

Melehe knew someone who had realized her mistake and worked to get back on her feet. Her progress may be slow, but she was moving forward now. Her efforts were bearing real fruit. How could Melehe stand by and let someone break that student’s spirit again and mock her for it?

“I hope you don’t expect me to just surrender.”

The trio simply sneered in response. Apparently even witches had failed to find a medicine to cure a fool.

“What are you saying we did? There’s nothing wrong with writing up a recipe and selling it. Your gloomy glasses friend is the one who believed it and actually made the thing.”

“Right? Seems to me you should be directing that righteous fury at Dorotha over there. Go on, get her instead☆”

“Hee hee. Be nice, you two. If you take her righteousness from her, she’s got nothing left. Push her any further and she’ll probably fall apart all on her own.”

A dull thud rang out.

A Formula Broom had been circling up in the dawn sky but now it dropped like a blade from the heavens, its tip striking the stone pavement hard. Before the broom could fall over, the silver-haired girl grabbed the long handle. She twirled it in her hand like a baton.

Melehe glared straight back at the trio and gave a proclamation.

“Answer me, Formula Broom – Mount Parnassus.”

“Of course.”

“I know exactly how you feel, Orpheus. So don’t bother holding back. You are a performer who puts your tastes above the rules of the world, after all. …Please help me fight. If you have a heart, I know you’re as pissed at these three as I am!”

“That goes without saying, milady. I will demonstrate that anger can be used to fuel the creative process.”

The three girls gave belligerent smiles and licked their lips while adjusting their grips on their brooms.

“Ha ha☆ How stupid are you!? Now you’re the one who picked a fight with us. What luck! Now we’re officially the victims no matter what we do to you!”

“Right? So let’s gang up on her and beat the crap out of her!”

“Dorothea doesn’t even matter as long as we have a pawn to get us deep inside Carraway Cs. Let’s make an addict out of her. She’ll be begging us for a way to forget all about reality before we’re done with her.”

Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans raised their malicious voices as one.

They exchanged dark grins and revealed even their brooms were identical.

“Formula Broom – Glamis!! Answer us, you three witches, you bubbles of the earth!! Draw out the great triangle and deceive Macbeth!!!”

The low sound of air being compressed erupted in triplicate.

It was one against three.

Multiple figures shook free of gravity and tore sharply through the air. An aerial witch battle had begun.